Somewhat surprised to see this over 50%, but not surprised at all to see it at #1. This IS the DPP Scizor of LC, and while not broken, is extremely good and should be on nearly every single team.

| 2 | Chinchou | 1683 | 40.969% | 1514 | 41.517% | +1 |

Chinchou is pretty awesome, and I think a lot of people (myself included) are catching on to the possibilities of Mienfoo's U-turn + Chinchou's Volt Switch. Such a good counter to a lot of threats, and bulky enough to take a random hit.

| 3 | Gastly | 1382 | 33.642% | 1184 | 32.468% | -1 |

Dropping down from #2 last month, Gastly is sitting comfortably at #3. Best Ghost-type in LC, but this is a major indication of a metagame shift. More below.

| 4 | Bronzor | 1080 | 26.290% | 997 | 27.340% | +1 |

Bronzor continues to climb, especially with the Drilbur rise. Overall, Bronzor is a decent Pokemon, but is ridiculous set-up bait for Scraggy. However, it is one of the best Drilbur counters, so being used a lot.

| 5 | Hippopotas | 833 | 20.278% | 798 | 21.883% | +4 |

Huge rise for Hippopotas. This gained over 5% of usage this month, and Sand is becoming more prevalent in this metagame. Obvious sign of a metagame shift from Scraggy-centralized to Drilbur-centralized.

| 6 | Scraggy | 818 | 19.912% | 709 | 19.442% | -2 |

It's only -2 spots, but it lost 5% usage. That's a lot, and very similar to the Hippopotas rise. Losing a lot of popularity, but Drilbur + Scraggy seems to be very promising. Sand teams just don't have that extra slot, though.

| 7 | Staryu | 797 | 19.401% | 700 | 19.196% | +0 |

Stayed pretty even. Great spinner, best 19 Speeder, Recover, just good all-around.

| 8 | Drilbur | 743 | 18.087% | 637 | 17.468% | +9 |

The Pokemon that caused the metagame shift. Once people discovered Eviolite Drilbur and Protect Drilbur, it just became ridiculously hard to kill. The normal counters to Scraggy (Croagunk, Mienfoo, Tailow, etc.) are pretty much destroyed by Drilbur, while the normal counters to Drilbur (Bronzor, Slowpoke, Lileep, etc.) are destroyed by Scraggy. It's going to be a wild metagame, where people lean toward Scraggy or Drilbur.

| 9 | Croagunk | 667 | 16.237% | 599 | 16.426% | +9 |

I'll be honest, this one really surprised me. An overextension of people trying to counter Scraggy? Perhaps, but it climbed a huge amount. Still lacking a good explanation for this.

EDIT: <&elevator_afk> everyone stole furai's team
thanks em

| 10 | Stunky | 647 | 15.750% | 555 | 15.219% | +2 |

This one surprised me too. Gastly actually dropped this month, so did Abra, and Stunky gets wrecked by Drifloon with proper prediction. However, Gastly is still extremely high and it's the best counter to it.

| 11 | Dwebble | 632 | 15.385% | 571 | 15.658% | -1 |

Dwebble is way too high imo. This thing really needs to fall, as the Lead set is growing long in the tooth and there are quite a number of ways to prevent it from getting hazards up. Shell Smash has been really good in my experience, but it has too many good counters- you need to get that SS up with Sturdy intact.

Stall is still pretty excellent, and the fact that Hippopotas usage is quite a bit larger than Drilbur usage speaks to this. (Although I feel that Sand stall should still run Drilbur, as it is pretty excellent for cleaning up random sweepers that get set up.) Lileep taking a huge plunge is probably due to Scraggy being so common, but I expect all three of these to rise considerably as Drilbur counters.

| 15 | Snover | 516 | 12.561% | 460 | 12.614% | +7 |

Still a bit low, but again hints at the metagame shift. Snover rips apart most of the metagame with Blizzard, and actually can clean up a lot of teams. Being Stealth Rock weak hurts it a ton though. I expect this to keep rising next month and probably crack top 10.

| 16 | Abra | 495 | 12.050% | 429 | 11.764% | -2 |

What happened Abra? Once Magic Guard was released, you were supposed to keep climbing. Abra is really hitting a wall here with Stunky being so high, but it is still excellent. If only it had better coverage moves...

| 17 | Drifloon | 488 | 11.879% | 416 | 11.408% | -9 |

I guess the metagame shift is the right way to explain everything. Drilbur handily cleans up Drifloon, who had basically free reign on Mienfoo and Scraggy. More Mienfoo run Stone Edge now, and Scraggy isn't as common. This will rise eventually, but is still one of the best Pokemon in Little Cup for the time being.

| 18 | Natu | 469 | 11.417% | 432 | 11.846% | +11 |

I blame Elevator Music.

| 19 | Larvesta | 454 | 11.052% | 413 | 11.325% | +2 |

More people are realizing that Larvesta is really good as long as you keep SR off the field. However, a rise in Stone Edge Mienfoo is probably causing this growth to be stunted. This actually barely rose in Real Usage, gaining under 0.1%.

| 20 | Tentacool | 449 | 10.930% | 411 | 11.271% | +4 |

Tentacool sort of sucks, to be honest, but it's pretty damn bulky and Giga Drain is super annoying. That being said though, with Staryu, Croagunk, and Stunky that high, Toxic Spikes are pretty useless. They are excellent against an unprepared team, but mostly are terrible.

I'll be honest, this one really surprised me. An overextension of people trying to counter Scraggy? Perhaps, but it climbed a huge amount. Still lacking a good explanation for this.

| 33 | Clamperl | 213 | 5.185% | 170 | 4.662% | +1 |

This really needs to rise. With Croagunk dropping, Shell Smash + Protect Clamperl could make a comeback. It's as threatening as Drilbur in my book.

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Nice logic there, Edward. In other news, I'm really glad to see *my* Drilbur increasing in usage by so much!

In other news, >50% Mienfoo isn't very surprising to me because of how much utility it brings to the table. Decent bulk, a great ability and U-turn to complement it is just amazing. Also, I know that I've bashed Chinchou in the past, but it does make a great teammate to Mienfoo. Natu is really good more people should use it =/

Actually, the correct stat is Mienfoo at 70%, considering that if you are under 1200 CRE in Little Cup you are actually retarded and should consider suicide the 1200+ stats are the only one we should be looking at.

This is why Mienfoo is broken, it has Misdreavus levels of usage and centralises the meta to a point where i believe it is detrimental. Maybe if we hadn't banned all of its best checks and counters......................... Nonetheless, Mienfoo is super strong and is essentially the DPP Misdreavus of BW, I believe it should be banned as this level of centralisation is disgusting

Gotta agree with Crux. A pokemon that is seen 70% of the time is certainly not the sign of a healthy metagame. I personally don't think that Mienfoo is broken, but it outclasses pretty much every pokemon fighting type in the metagame(imo).
Mienfoo is such a weird pokemon to ban, though. It's not sweeping you after a stat boost like Scraggy. It's not ridiculously fast and difficult to revenge kill like Drilburr. It's just supporting a team very efficiently.
Overall, it's just so difficult to not slap Mienfoo on every team. It's good on most types of teams(with the exception of stall imo), and it does it job better than every pokemon in the tier(proof is in over 72% usage).
Basically, a ban is certainly an option, and I would be happy to see further discussion:)

Actually, the correct stat is Mienfoo at 70%, considering that if you are under 1200 CRE in Little Cup you are actually retarded and should consider suicide the 1200+ stats are the only one we should be looking at.

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Secondly, I agree with Crux. The 1200+ stats should really be considered the most(at least when we're talking about Mienfoo). LC is way too small of a tier to be heavily considering other statistics.

No it isn't. Have you ever played DPP LC? We had to run things like Shadow Ball Munchlax to beat it reliably. I don't see people running Psychic Staryu or the like just to beat Mienfoo. Please don't make comparisons if you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

No it isn't. Have you ever played DPP LC? We had to run things like Shadow Ball Munchlax to beat it reliably. I don't see people running Psychic Staryu or the like just to beat Mienfoo. Please don't make comparisons if you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

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well, look at the rise of larvesta usage. Is that not an indication of how powerful mienfoo is?

well, look at the rise of larvesta usage. Is that not an indication of how powerful mienfoo is?

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Actually, Larvesta is not a reliable Mienfoo counter due to how common Stone Edge is. People use Larvesta due to its good bulk, powerful STAB U-turn, and good resistances to Ice- and Fighting-type moves. I use it on my sand team simply to beat Snover, which it does excellently.

Moderator

One big factor of Larvesta's high usage this month was that Mienfoo was so common, and at the time didn't run Stone Edge commonly at all. This only started to change near the end of the month, after Larvesta became popular. I'm not denying that it also makes a very good check to other Fighting-types like Croagunk, as well as Snover (and other Grass-types), but it was primarily used for Mienfoo. My advice now would be to take advantage of Mienfoo being "forced" to run Stone Edge. Gastly is a better stop to it than ever, because it's increasingly harder to fit in Payback, and you can just spam Substitute until they miss with Stone Edge or switch out. I'm sure there are a bunch of other examples, but I'm kind of strapped for time so I'll either leave them for you to figure out or just start using them myself later.

Regardless, I think banning Mienfoo for being "overcentralizing" is absolutely ridiculous. We don't ban Pokemon because we don't like them, especially when everyone in this thread discussing a Mienfoo ban has mentioned themselves that they don't feel Mienfoo is really too strong. Instead of complaining about it, go change the metagame by making teams that Mienfoo can't walk all over... or at the very least stop bitching about it, because that's not going to change a thing.

"We don't ban Pokemon because we don't like them, especially when everyone in this thread is discussing a Mienfoo ban has mentioned themselves that they don't Mienfoo is really too strong."
In that case, we might need to redefine "broken". Its been said countless time that there's a prevalence of fighting types in LC. This is simply not the case, there's a prevalence of TWO fighting types in the tier: Mienfoo and Scraggy. Now, when I say we might need to redefine the term "broken", I mean, if a pokemon is being used a ludacris amount of times and it's by far the best at what it does, is the pokemon too good? If it makes using Timburr, Machop and other powerful fighting types useless, then is this a metagame that promotes diversity?

"We don't ban Pokemon because we don't like them, especially when everyone in this thread is discussing a Mienfoo ban has mentioned themselves that they don't Mienfoo is really too strong."
In that case, we might need to redefine "broken". Its been said countless time that there's a prevalence of fighting types in LC. This is simply not the case, there's a prevalence of TWO fighting types in the tier: Mienfoo and Scraggy. Now, when I say we might need to redefine the term "broken", I mean, if a pokemon is being used a ludacris amount of times and it's by far the best at what it does, is the pokemon too good? If it makes using Timburr, Machop and other powerful fighting types useless, then is this a metagame that promotes diversity?

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Promoting diversity =/= good. You play to win the game, so you use the best Pokemon available to you. This goes back to the DPP Scizor comparison. Would you have argued that Scizor was broken because there were no other Bug-types in OU? No.

No it isn't. Have you ever played DPP LC? We had to run things like Shadow Ball Munchlax to beat it reliably. I don't see people running Psychic Staryu or the like just to beat Mienfoo. Please don't make comparisons if you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

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I'm speaking on usage. When Misdreavus was banned last generation, she was, speaking on percentages here, used on over half of every team. Unless I'm reading these incorrectly, it appears as if the very same is happening with Mienfoo.

I realize that you don't just ban a Pokemon because they appear in, hypothetically, 1 out of every 2 teams, but once you analyze WHY they appear so frequently, you start to notice things.

Besides, I'd rather run Psychic Staryu than have to run, you know, an entire Pokemon just to deal with it. I mean, isn't that the reason why people started using things like Scarf Taillow?

Promoting diversity =/= good. You play to win the game, so you use the best Pokemon available to you. This goes back to the DPP Scizor comparison. Would you have argued that Scizor was broken because there were no other Bug-types in OU? No.

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First of all, that's a terrible comparison. You're comparing apples to purses. Now to argue against you're point, there was always another bug type:Forretress. Not to mention the fact that Yanmega was viable in OU @ the time. Now to answer your question I wouldn't argue that Scizor was broken because there WERE other Bug-types in OU. Now, lets look at Mienfoo. What other fighting types are really VIABLE in the tier? The answer to that question is Scraggy, and Scraggy alone.

Incase you still don't understand the basis of my argument, it is this. Mienfoo is preventing the metagame from being diverse. There's very little variety in this metagame. In #littlecup, I've heard countless times the same thing: "it's so hard to not slap Mienfoo on every team" And this statement is correct. When I was building my first team, I had a Choice Scarfed Machop. I sent the team to my Charmander for criticism and the first thing he pointed out was that why use Machop when I could be using Mienfoo? I tried to think of an answer but I simply couldn't. If Mienfoo is not promoting a diverse metagame, why is it being allowed to exist.

Blajaran made a good point in #littlecup when he said that there aren't many viable fighting types in lc. This could certainly explain the ridiculous Mienfoo usage and this point should be considered.

]What other fighting types are really VIABLE in the tier? The answer to that question is Scraggy, and Scraggy alone.

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That's definitely false. Timburr and Machop are still viable. Unless I'm misunderstanding the term "viable". People just choose to use Mienfoo over them. That doesn't mean that other fighting types aren't usable in LC. Machop's powerful STAB Dynamic Punch is a great thing to have and Timburr's STAB priority is also great. They are viable! Oh, and I forgot to mention Croagunk.

I'm speaking on usage. When Misdreavus was banned last generation, she was, speaking on percentages here, used on over half of every team. Unless I'm reading these incorrectly, it appears as if the very same is happening with Mienfoo.

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Have you ever played DPP LC?

If you did, you would certainly realize that Mienfoo and Misdreavus are completely and totally different. I can't even express this enough. Misdreavus was flat-out outright broken; you could hard-counter one set but get completely destroyed by another. Find me a log where Mienfoo sweeps a team that isn't a piece of shit.

I realize that you don't just ban a Pokemon because they appear in, hypothetically, 1 out of every 2 teams, but once you analyze WHY they appear so frequently, you start to notice things.

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So why does Mienfoo appear so often?

1) Good stats. Not amazing, but pretty good.
2) Regenerator makes it a great scout. U-turn + Regenerator makes it nearly risk-free for Mienfoo to get in and out on most Pokemon.
3) It checks Scraggy well with the right EVs while still maintaining better utility than say, Croagunk. Not a hard counter, but still a good one.

None of these make Mienfoo broken. Sure, it makes it a very good Pokemon, and that's why it's used so much. I've seen the phrase "not promoting diversity" thrown around a lot in this thread. How do you promote diversity? You can't promote diversity by using a Pokemon.

Besides, I'd rather run Psychic Staryu than have to run, you know, an entire Pokemon just to deal with it.

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Oh no! I have to run a check to common Pokemon! Ever heard of metagaming?

I mean, isn't that the reason why people started using things like Scarf Taillow?

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Scarf Taillow is a Scraggy check first and foremost. It is also a Clamperl check. If your team's answer to Mienfoo switching in is switching to Taillow, you probably need a new team.

I'm with ISS and EM on this one. 70% usage doesnt mean its broken. Hell it dosent even necessarily mean its good. all it means is that it's able to beat the metagame. And like EM said; don't like it? build a team to beat it.

Some one said "I'd rather run Psychic staryu than... an entire pokemon just to deal with it"
It's at 70% usuage. running 1 pokemon on your team to shut to down something you will more often than not see is not a bad idea. In fact; thats what team building is.

In reference to the "diversity" thing: Little Cup is the second largest (it would be the largest but NU has all he 2nd evo's and generally sucky mons) tier because it doesn't separate into OU, UU, NU, RU, or whatever. LC has just as much diversity as OU does.

Just because I have the ability to run Scarf Pidgey, doesnt mean I ever should when Taillow/Doduo exist.

Basically: The diversity argument is null and void, and banning meinfoo is just saying "we should ban the most used pokemon because I'm too lazy to try and cover it"